


Crimson Hemlock

by Luxis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Same Age, Beauxbatons Tom Riddle, But surprisingly romantic, Dark, Dark! Tom, Good! Harry, Gradual corruption, Hogwarts Harry, M/M, Secret Identities, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-04-06 04:18:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luxis/pseuds/Luxis
Summary: Harry Potter messages and befriends an anonymous killer. They agree to kill one victim of the other's choice, but little does Harry realize that the unknown killer is actually Tom Riddle, a Beauxbatons rising star who's had his eye on Harry for some while.Or: a same age Modern-with-Magic AU, in which Tom can't get enough of his latest victim.





	1. Silken Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by YoungDream's webcomic, "Psycho". The idea of exchange murders came from the webcomic, even if pretty much everything else is entirely different from the webcomic plot. I highly recommend Psycho, by the way! I've obsessively reread it ever since it first came out.
> 
>  
> 
> [reposted because ao3 ceased letting me update in chronological order for the previous nonreposted version of the fic, meaning that whenever I tried to add a chapter, it would autoset the date to my first posted date (march 24th) and then not let it show up when you sort by date updated on the tomarrymort tag]

Harry lay sprawled across his bed, alone in the house and cooped up in his room.

 

It was late August, and with only a few weeks before he was to leave for his seventh year at Hogwarts, he should have been making the most of what time remained. Yet, there he was, staring up at the ceiling, rising out of his stupor only occasionally to check his phone.

 

Harry didn’t exactly have anyone to talk to at the moment either. His dad was always off on some Head Auror duty or another, and his mother… well, that was another story.

 

Lily Evans Potter was a high-demand Emergency Care Healer Specialist at St. Mungo's. Or at least, she had been until she was put into a coma a year ago by Archibald Selwyn.

 

Though no one could prove it, Harry _knew_ it was Selwyn. For, as Harry found out only days before his mother became comatose, Selwyn had been sending her death threats and various dark artifacts for years in the name of "restoring blood purity".

 

The worst part was that Harry had no evidence. His mother hadn't told anyone about the letters and cursed objects, because Selwyn had believably threatened to kill Harry and James if she ever dared go to the authorities. Harry himself wouldn’t have found out if he hadn't been poking around the house and stumbled across the letters back then. However, the day that Harry's mother fell comatose, all the letters and dark artifacts suddenly disappeared, and there truly was no proof left.

 

With a mother reduced to an unresponsive state, and a shell of a father working incessantly to cope with the grief, Harry was effectively on his own.

 

To pass the time, Harry joined an online chat on TextTalk, which was a messaging app for wizards. There was some sort of complicated spellwork algorithm that kept the app running, sort of similar to Muggle coding. Hermione disapproved of Harry's choice to use TextTalk, since she was convinced that everyone online was a serial killer or pedophile, but Harry shrugged off her concerns in the end.

 

_Ding!_

 

Harry rolled over and picked up his phone to read his chat notifs, eyes widening when he saw that there were eighty new messages from the past couple minutes alone.

 

As Harry scrolled through his new messages from the online chat, he noticed something odd. A new user called "Viper" had been messaging the words, " **I want to kill him** ", over and over again. The others had continued their conversations, ignoring the interruptions from Viper, but Harry sensed that there was something off.

 

Maybe Viper was kidding around? People these days did tend to joke about death often. Or maybe Viper was quoting some book?

 

Harry wondered if he should ask Viper about it. After a brief moment of hesitation, Harry's curiosity and Gryffindor impetuousness won out, and he clicked the "add friend" button under Viper's profile.

 

Not a moment later, Harry's phone pinged again, and this time it was a private DM from Viper.

 

4:12 pm: **Greetings, Lion.**

4:12 pm: _Hello to you too, Viper._

Harry hesitated briefly before deciding to ask Viper outright about the concerning messages.

4:14 pm: _I saw that you said "I want to kill him" on the group chat several times. Did you mean that?_

4:14 pm: **Of course I did. Why would I not?**

4:15 pm: _Are you not afraid that someone will report you?_

4:16 pm: **For what, merely expressing my thoughts? So long as I have not acted upon such impulses, I have not violated any laws, local or international.**

4:17 pm: _Oh._

4:18 pm: _Is "him" a real person?_

4:18 pm: **Yes.**

4:19 pm: _Who is he then?_

4:19 pm: **Awfully bold, aren't you?**

4:20 pm: _You're the one who messaged a massive online chat that you wanted to murder someone._

4:22 pm: **A moot point, but rather amusing nonetheless. Because you're such an interesting individual, I'll answer your question. The person I was referring to is my father.**

 

Harry shivered. Viper wanted to kill their own parent, and it sounded like they meant it.

 

4:27 pm: _Why?_

4:28 pm: **My father is a despicable piece of filth and is unworthy of bearing the same name as I. My mother named me after him, that foolish woman, but I could not be more different from him.**

4:30 pm: _What's your father done to you? He can't be that bad, right?_

4:33 pm: **You naïve, simple child. My father is scum in more ways than one. After I was born, my father worked my mother like a slave until she died, and I was barely a year old at the time.**

4:34 pm: **He later took me to another country, but only because he didn't know what to do with me otherwise. He is a blight upon my being, a bane of my existence, and he knows it.**

4:35 pm: **In fact, he would have killed me like he did to my mother, but he's too afraid to do anything to me.**

 

Harry stared at the messages with growing shock. What sort of background did Viper come from?

 

4:38 pm: _Couldn't you talk to the authorities and bring him to justice?_

4:39 pm: **No. He holds too much wealth and influence. I hate him with my very core, and I want to see him dead. Do you understand this sentiment?**

 

Harry swallowed hard.

 

4:43 pm: _I do, actually._

 

He took a deep breath before abandoning all caution and plunging straight into the deep end.

 

4:45 pm: _I want to kill someone._

 

The confession was a twisted relief, something shameful and yet burningly true. Harry knew he was supposed to be _good_ , the staunch Gryffindor and righteous son of Head Auror James Potter, but he'd let the whispered admission fall from his lips. There was something about Viper that made Harry want to tell him this dark secret, and he didn't know why.

 

4:49 pm: _The person I'm referring to has been harassing my mom. He's sent her death threats and cursed objects, and she couldn't even tell anyone because he would kill me and my dad if she did._

4:50 pm: _My mom went into a coma a year ago, and I know he's responsible for it._

4:51 pm: _I don't have any evidence to prove it, but I know he's behind it._

4:52 pm: _He's definitely done this to others before. I'm certain of it._

4:52 pm: _He won't be caught either, since he's a pureblood with money and influence. If anyone ever dared bring him before Wizengamot, he'd terrify and bribe members into letting him off._

4:53 pm: _I hate him. I hate him so much._

 

Harry felt the rage coursing in his veins, his words ringing true. There was a fierce protectiveness rising within as he thought of his mother the last time he'd seen her. She had been so pale, so fragile, her skin almost translucent as she lay on what may as well have been her deathbed, the lone beeping of her heart rate monitor the only sound in the bleak hospital room.

 

4:54 pm: _I want to kill him for what he did to my mother._

 

Harry sighed and leaned back, figuring that he'd probably scared off Viper. Any rational person would have been alarmed by what Harry had just admitted. But much to his surprise, his phone pinged almost immediately after he'd sent the message.

 

4:54 pm: **I'll kill him for you.**

 

At this, Harry blanched in shock.

 

4:55 pm: _What? Don't joke about things like that._

4:55 pm: **I hadn't spoken in jest.**

4:56 pm: _We don't even know each other. Why would you kill him?_

4:56 pm: **My motives are straightforward. Have you heard of "exchange murder"?**

4:57 pm: **Exchange murder is when two persons arrange to kill the other person's target. Considering that a significant portion of forensics analysis relies upon motive-searching and character evaluations, exchange murder most certainly diminishes the ability of authorities to determine a culprit.**

 

Harry stared at his phone, wide-eyed.

 

5:00 pm: _This is insane._

5:01 pm: **Not at all.**

5:01 pm: **Consider this: if I executed the task without mistake, then the police would find nothing at the crime scene to prosecute either of us. And if I did make a blunder while killing your target, you still wouldn't be affected because there wouldn't be any evidence to incriminate you.**

 

Harry grew more and more uneasy. It seemed that Viper was dead serious about this.

 

5:10 pm: **I see that you remain hesitant and afraid.**

5:11 pm: _And why shouldn't I be? I don't know anything about you. I don't even know if you're a boy or a girl, for Godric's sake._

5:11 pm: **Hence the very basis of "exchange murder", Lion. The less we know about each other, the less likelihood there is of mutual exposé.**

 

Conflicted, Harry couldn't trust himself to respond. This entire affair held clear undertones of danger, and yet Harry couldn't get the possibility of a dead Selwyn out of his mind. He _had_ meant it when he said he wanted Selwyn gone, after all. But did he want to play a direct role in Selwyn's death?

 

5:13 pm: **Don't you wish to avenge your mother?**

 

That single, simple message completely halted Harry's thoughts.

 

5:15 pm: _I do._

5:15 pm: **Then why must you balk at such a simple solution?**

 

Harry closed his eyes and tried to level his breathing, but his heart was racing too quickly. Here was an opportunity for him to punish Selwyn, and by all means, it was fairly risk-free.

 

There was a small voice in Harry's mind, however, that reminded him that this was _murder_. He could only imagine the disappointment in his mother's eyes if she ever found out.

 

But then again, he wouldn't ever know how Lily would react, thanks to Selwyn.

 

5:17 pm: **Your mother's enemy is yours, so there should be no qualms regarding ending the man's useless life.**

 

Was murder justifiable if the victim was as despicable as Selwyn?

 

5:20 pm: **Perhaps you do not trust me. To prove myself worthy,** **I propose that I follow through on my end of the bargain first.**

 

Harry gaped at that. Viper's proposal was so incredibly foolish on his part. As far as Harry could see, Viper would be the one at a disadvantage. Viper didn't even know who Harry was, meaning that Harry could easily back out afterwards and Viper would never be able to ensure that Harry did his part.

 

Here was his chance. Viper so willingly offered to kill Selwyn, and Harry could be rid of the vile man once and for all.

 

5:22 pm: **So, will you consent to the agreement?**

 

Harry's hands shook as he typed the final, damning words.

 

5:24 pm: _All right._

 

 

 

There. He'd done it.

 

 

 

5:16 pm: **Would you like to exchange mobile numbers? I'd prefer we have a backup channel of communication, should anything happen.**

5:16 pm: _Ok, let me text you my number._

5:17 pm: **Wonderful. We'll be in touch.**

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

Across the continent, Tom Riddle's lips twisted into a slow smile.

 

_And so the luxurious spider's silk ensnares the opalescent butterfly._


	2. Sweet Poison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Recap of the previous chapter** :  
> Harry meets the anonymous user called Viper on TextTalk, which is an online chatting site for wizards. He makes an exchange murder deal with Viper: Viper will kill Archibald Selwyn (the person who put Harry's mother in a coma), and Harry will return the favor by killing Viper's father. They exchange numbers and leave it at that.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to maquira! She's the one who beta'd it into the next astral plane, because _oh my god_ she's such a skilled writer. She wrote Chained and Kudosed, Bookmarked, Subscribed, as well as some other magnificent Tomarrymort works. Please check her out!!! I love you maquiraaa twinsissie <3

Tom exited out of the chat, leaning back in his chair as the desktop screen blackened before him. 

 

He stretched his arms above him, his lean, muscled limbs painting a picture prettier than the sunset beyond his darkened, basement walls.

 

After all, to any outside observer, Tom Marvolo Riddle was a beautiful enigma.

 

He was incredibly attractive by conventional standards. His unreadable obsidian eyes were piercing and intense, ever so slightly unsettling if one stared into them long enough. Dark, luxurious locks fell into his eyes, effortlessly styled, painting a sharp contrast to his pale, unblemished complexion. 

 

Tom’s good looks were only enhanced by his flawless facade; polite, demure, and charismatic. When he strolled across the room, the elegant sweep of his long limbs set him apart from his gangly peers. And even when he stood still, his tall, self-assured stature was like a shining beacon of prefect-esque righteousness.

 

His true nature, however, was a far cry from his lovely appearance. In reality, Tom was cunning, ruthless, and sadistic. He was not a kind man, and he knew it.

 

Even the Devil wore a skin of beauty on occasion.

 

And so, Tom came to be a grandmaster of manipulation. As the star student of Beauxbatons, he was loved and admired by all. As the last scion of Slytherin's bloodline, he was feared and respected amongst pureblood circles.

 

And as the anonymous Viper, he revelled in bloodshed and cruelty.

 

Tom revelled in watching unwitting fools fall for his painstakingly established charade. He scoffed at their naivety. _Exchange murder?_ Tom, being a skilled killer, certainly didn't need anyone to help him kill his father. The filthy Muggle was only alive because Tom deemed him useful.

 

The actual reason he bothered with the whole "exchange murder" concept was so that he could lure in another victim to toy with. Each time he would offer to kill the other person's target first, the other person easily agreed, thinking that Tom had no way of holding the other accountable.

 

That would be their first blunder of many. Tom, having honed his programming skills to perfection,  could easily find their identity and track them down. From then on, he would set in place surveillance systems and slowly stalk his victim into insanity, before eventually killing them too.

 

He'd expected nothing different when he struck up a conversation with Lion, but Lion soon proved himself to be different from the rest.

 

Unlike the others, Lion was hesitant at the prospect of a murder exchange. And although Tom was well-versed in the art of deception and smooth talk, Lion remained unwilling to accept Tom's proposal for quite a while. Clearly, Lion had staunch morals of his own, and Tom was instantly delighted at that realization.

 

After all, it was the good ones whom were always most fun to corrupt.

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

Harry's dad came home slightly later than usual. He stumbled through the door, clearly exhausted, before collapsing into a chair by the dinner table.

 

"Hi, dad."

 

"Hey there, kiddo," came James's tired voice.

 

"Did you eat already?" Harry asked, knowing the answer and already getting up to reheat leftovers from dinner.

 

James said gave a bleary smile. "I can't say that I have. Thanks for looking out for me."

 

Harry didn't respond, unable to suppress a tiny flare of resentment at James's words. When did Harry _not_ look after his father these days?

 

"Sorry for coming home late," James said apologetically after an awkward pause, misinterpreting Harry's silence.

 

"It's all right." 

 

It wasn't like James was around often on a normal day, anyways. Harry felt guilty about blaming James, since he was clearly still broken from the loss of Lily. But Harry was still hurting too, so why was only James allowed to grieve?

 

"No, it's really not," James insisted, sitting up and roughly running a hand through his wayward, stressed locks. "I…I want to make it up to you, Harry, I really do."

 

Harry remained silent as he put down a plate of food before James. He turned to walk away, but James latched onto his arm before he could leave.

 

"Harry…"

 

Unable to stay angry at his father for long, Harry sighed and sat down in the chair next James's. "Yes?"

 

"Look, I'm really sorry about being more absent than usual lately. How about we go see a Quidditch game together? The Chudley Cannons are playing this weekend."

 

Harry didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd stopped supporting the Cannons a year and a half ago.

 

"I'll also invite the Weasleys over too, how about that? I know that you haven't seen your friends much this summer," James added.

 

Harry gave James what he hoped was a convincing smile. "Sure, Dad. I'd love to go."

 

James broke into a relieved grin. "Awesome. I'll clear my schedule so I can go too."

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

Over the few weeks, Harry spent nearly his every waking moment talking with Viper. They rarely used TextTalk anymore, opting instead for SMS messaging. 

 

Technically, their exchange murder agreement didn’t necessitate any further contact. Harry didn't need to talk to Viper anymore, since he'd already given Viper a detailed file on Selwyn and now he was merely waiting for Viper to do his part. 

 

Most unexpectedly, Harry discovered that he had begun to look forward to conversing with Viper. Perhaps it was because he had drifted apart from his friends since Lily’s accident. Either way, Harry found himself craving Viper’s company… if not simply because he found the other man so intriguing.

 

So despite all the warning signs, Harry still came to Viper to talk. He'd come to a wary acceptance that Viper may not have been normal in any sense of the word, but he was drawn to the unknown person nevertheless.

 

10:21 pm: _Hello, Viper_

10:22 pm: **Good evening, Lion.**

10:22 pm: _I wanted to ask you something_

10:23 pm: _How's your relationship with your father?_

10:23 pm: **Why, do you wish to back out of our agreement? Too afraid to acknowledge that you'll eventually be his killer?**

Harry gulped, having completely forgotten about that.

10:24 pm: _No, I just wanted to know about what things are like between you and your dad._

10:25 pm: **Ah. Are you perhaps seeking guidance regarding your own experiences with a father figure?**

 

And there it was again. Time after time, Viper proved himself to be an uncannily perceptive person, and Harry always was thrown off guard.

 

10:26 pm: _Yeah._

10:27 pm: _How did you guess?_

10:27 pm: **My thought processes are irrelevant. Tell me, Lion, what troubles you now?**

 

Godric. Viper sounded like a sodding therapist.

 

10:30 pm: _I don't know. I just… how did you know that things were off between you and your dad?_

10:31 pm: **For one, we both wanted the other dead.**

10:31 pm: _…okay, that doesn’t apply to me, never mind._

10:32 pm: **What does, then? I can offer advice regardless of my own experiences.**

10:33 pm: _My dad and I used to be really close._

10:34 pm: **But?**

 

Harry took a deep breath and delved right into it.

 

10:38 pm: _But since my mom went into a coma, he's been drifting apart from me._

10:39 pm: **What do you mean by that?**

10:42 pm: _He's always been busy with work, but it was never this bad. Now, he doesn't even know what my favorite Quidditch team is... which sounds unimportant, I know. But we used to know everything about each other when it came to things like this._

10:43 pm: **Ah.**

10:43 pm: _And the thing is, I know he's grieving for my mum, but I am too._

10:45 pm: _I wish that he would be the one there for me, instead of the other way around._

10:45 pm: **And why should you not feel that way? It's only natural.**

10:46 pm: _He's my dad though, and I don't know what to do._

There was a pause from the other end.

10:49 pm: **Do you want me to give you my evaluation of your dilemma?**

10:50 pm: _Yes, please._

10:51 pm: **Here's what I believe to be the case:**

10:51 pm: **This isn't an isolated incident.**

10:51 pm: **There's a pattern.**

10:52 pm: **You feel hurt and invalidated, almost.**

10:52 pm: **You fear that all along, you were unimportant.**

10:52 pm: **You're terrified that to him, you're nothing without your mother.**

10:53 pm: **And above all?**

 

A pause again.

 

10:54 pm: **You blame yourself for what happened to your mother.**

10:54 pm: **You resent your father, for not noticing her pain and the blackmail.**

10:54 pm: **You reproach yourself - perhaps subconsciously - for begrudging your father, but above all?**

 

Harry’s breath hitched, his chest thrumming with anticipation.

 

10:55 pm: **You condemn your father for abandoning you.**

 

Harry exhaled sharply, his left hand splaying unevenly across the lower half of his face. Where had all of that come from?

 

10:58 pm _: What?_

10:58 pm **: Don't deny it, Lion. You and I both know it's the truth.**

 

Harry was certain that he hadn't been this obvious about his feelings. And yet... Viper had read him perfectly.

 

11:00 pm: _Don't you think you're being too psycho-analyzy?_

11:01 pm: **That's not a word. And no, I'm not.**

11:01 pm: **Think carefully.**

11:01 pm: **Was anything I said wrong?**

 

Harry felt his heart sink a little. Viper's analysis had hurt, but Viper hadn't been off the mark at all.

 

11:10 pm: _No, you were right._

11:11 pm **: Of course I was. I'll let you mull over about what we've talked about. Goodnight and sweet dreams, Lion.**

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

"Harry! There you are," Hermione said happily, engulfing Harry in a hug.

 

"Haven't seen you almost all summer, mate," Ron said, clapping him on the back in greeting.

 

"Sorry about that." Harry said with an apologetic smile. "I got a bit busy."

 

That was a complete lie. In actuality, Harry had simply hadn't wanted to see his friends, who were unburdened and wouldn't understand what he was going through.

Besides, they'd nag him about "being nicer to your father" or something, put the blame on _him_ somehow, and he really didn't want to deal with that.

 

"Hey Harry, why haven't you been replying to our messages?" Ginny asked, appearing out of nowhere.

 

"I have been replying. I just haven't been replying that often," Harry corrected her.

 

"But I'm your girlfriend. Shouldn't you be keeping in touch with me?" She pouted.

 

Harry blinked. These past couple of weeks, it'd slipped his mind that he and Ginny were dating, even though he'd been delighted when she asked him out back in May.

 

"Er, sorry about that," He said honestly. "I guess things got a bit too much for me."

 

Hermione narrowed her eyes, evidently seeing through Harry's halfhearted excuses, but he was mercifully saved from an interrogation when Mr. Weasley showed up.

 

"Harry, how wonderful to see you again! Where's your dad?" The man asked, beaming as he looked for James.

 

"I don't know, actually." Harry shrugged, trying to hide his disappointment. "He said he'd cleared up his schedule, but a couple hours earlier, he had to rush to the office because of some urgent call."

 

Ginny nodded sympathetically. "Your dad's so busy. I wish he would give himself a break."

 

"Don't we all?" Harry muttered under his breath, unheard by the others.

 

They made their way up to the stands and took their seats. There was half an hour to go before the game started, and Harry watched as the clock ticked down. When there was only a minute left, Harry sighed and sat back.

 

"Looks like my dad isn't coming," Harry said with false indifference.

 

Hermione gave him a concerned look, but Harry pointedly ignored her gaze. The thing was, he'd known that James wouldn't make it. But still, Harry had hoped that maybe, just this once, that James would have remembered his son.

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

"—and the ref was being so unfair, he should have given the Cannons a penalty goal when United almost bludgeoned the Chaser—"

 

Harry laughed as he listened to Ron. He'd been ranting this whole time, and he was still in full steam as they Flooed back to the Burrow. 

 

"Mate, the Cannons lost by two hundred and eighty points. One goal wouldn't have changed much."

 

Ron rounded on him, a wounded look on his face. "Oi! Are you supporting the Cannons or not?"

 

Harry's smile dimmed a bit. "I thought I told you that I support the Tornadoes now."

 

Ron frowned. "Since when? Are you just _bandwagoning_ now?"

 

"I've supported them since before last year, Ron," Harry said, the words coming out a bit more harshly than he'd intended.

 

"Then why are you watching the Cannons?" Ron demanded.

 

"Because my dad wanted to," Harry said tightly.

 

"Wha—"

 

"Drop it, Ron. I want to talk to my boyfriend," Ginny hissed at him. Ron and Hermione left them alone after that.

 

"Thanks, Gin," Harry said gratefully.

 

"No problem," She said, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, causing him to stiffen in surprise and color faintly.

 

"That was sudden," Harry mumbled, taken by surprise.

 

Ginny pulled him off to the side of the kitchen. "I was actually hoping that we could do something else with the time that we currently have."

 

"Oh. Er, okay," Harry said blankly.

 

She trailed a hand suggestively from the collar of his shirt to the line of buttons down the center of his torso. "Mmm. We haven't gotten any alone time, recently."

 

Harry's eyes widened, the back of his neck beginning to feel uncomfortably hot. 

 

"In fact, now that no one's around to look, I think it's time to do something else," She breathed, leaning in towards him further until her chest was pressed up against his front.

 

Harry was very, very flustered now. He hadn't even kissed Ginny yet, and he was feeling supremely uncomfortable.

 

"Harry—"

 

_Ding!_

 

Harry was never more relieved to hear his phone's notifications sound.

 

"Er, sorry Gin, let me see who this is real quick," He checked his messages and just as he'd guessed, it was Viper.

 

Ginny stared disappointedly at him, but Harry only felt a little bad about it. Sure, he liked Ginny, probably, but he wasn't sure if he was willing to do couples-things with her like that.

 

"Who's texting you?" Ginny said suspiciously, leaning over Harry's shoulder.

 

Harry hastily put his phone away. "It's my dad," He lied through his teeth. "He says he's back from work now, and he wants to say sorry for missing the game."

 

Ginny still looked a bit doubtful, but she eased off. "Okay. Tell me how it goes with him."

 

Harry gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks for understanding, Gin."

 

Slightly mollified, Ginny hugged him back. "See you in a week at Hogwarts, then."

 

"You too," Harry called over his shoulder as he walked towards the floo.

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

4:29 pm: **Good afternoon, Lion.**

4:36 pm: **My apologies. Did I catch you at a bad time?**

4:36 pm: _No, you texted at the perfect time actually._

4:36 pm: _You got me out of a sticky situation with my girlfriend. I didn't answer earlier because I was flooing home._

4:37 pm: **Glad to be of assistance. How did your day go? Weren't you supposed to be at a game with your father earlier?**

 

Harry sighed ruefully. It looked like Viper at least had remembered about the game, unlike his own father.

 

4:38 pm: _Here’s the funny thing_

4:38 pm: _Even though my dad was the one who suggested the game for father-son bonding time, he was the one who ended up not showing._

4:38 pm: **That's unacceptable. Did he give notice beforehand?**

4:39 pm: _Nope._

4:39 pm: **I'm sorry about that. Was it good to see your friends again?**

4:39 pm: _Kind of. I missed them, I know that, but we've been drifting apart for a while. It was super clear that we weren't as close as before._

4:40 pm: **Tell me more about them. What's it like, being their friend?**

 

Seeing Viper's interest, Harry smiled a little. Talking to Viper was always so easy.

 

4:40 pm: _Well, it's kind of odd actually…_

 

By the time he'd finished venting to Viper, Harry realized with a start that it was almost six. He hastily put down his phone and went to the kitchen to make dinner. His dad still wasn't back, but at least Harry had Viper to chat with.

 

In fact, Harry's conversations with Viper had become so natural that he'd essentially forgotten about the issue of exchange murders lately. It was almost as though Viper was an ordinary friend of Harry's.

 

How quaint.

 

~~~~~______~~~~~______~~~~~

 

_The hunter spider bears colors of ruby, and its allure bewitches all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha Tom sure knows how to win Harry's trust ;))
> 
> Kudos and comments are love!! 💗


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